10 tips for small business startups that want to turn dreams into reality

Think you’re the next Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg? If so, this list may not be for you. The world’s meteoric startups — the rare few that topple industries and remake society — are usually built by breaking rules, not following them.

On the other hand, you probably aren’t them. Startups that turn into multibillion-dollar companies are the business world’s equivalent of lottery winners. Stake everything you have on a dream of a jackpot, and you’re likely to end up holding worthless scraps of paper.

What follows are 10 rules for starting a small business, chosen from Slate reader submissions. The list is designed not to encourage you to chase your wildest dreams but to help you turn your more viable dreams into a real livelihood.

1. Be Realistic About Your Business Model by Patrick L.

When contemplating a business model, look around and find successful examples of that model to study. If you can’t find any, then you are either an extraordinary genius, or the business model can’t work in the real world. Choose whichever is more likely.

2. Don’t Invest Your Own Capital

If you knew with 100 percent certainty that your oil well would strike black gold, then you’d be better off borrowing the money to start it up, knowing full well that you could pay off the loan and keep all the future profits to yourself. But since most businesses are very risky ventures, especially new ones, you should take on equity partners instead (or consider crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter). That way, if things don’t pan out, you won’t be on the hook for the costs and you can move on to the next venture.

3. Be Your Own Slave Labor

Unless you are willing to work for hours on end, forgoing your own benefits and health — or unless you’re blessed with a 401(k) or a trust fund — entrepreneurship may not be for you. Many people burn through their savings, raid their children’s college money, and max out their credit cards to build a product using consultants, laborers and experts — but not all these products even make the market. You can’t hire people cheaply unless you’re willing to work cheaply yourself (at least at first).

4. Value Your Time

I mean this literally: Pick a dollar amount that your time is worth. You may not actually be paying yourself, but just having the number can help you make many day-to-day decisions. For instance, say your time is worth $60 an hour: If Costco will deliver your weekly supplies for $100, and it would take you two hours to do the shopping yourself, then Costco is the way to go.

(Editor’s note: This might sound like it contradicts Rule 3, but an economist will tell you that even slave labor has an economic value.)

5. Hire Well

Regardless of how small a business you own, eventually you will probably have to hire outside help, whether in the form of a cashier, clerk or accountant. I can think of nothing worse than a business owner who has a vision for their business yet hires employees who consistently thwart this vision. Make the hiring process as careful and deliberate and important as the starting of the business.

6. Sell on Features, Not on Price

When starting your own business, you naturally will be desperate for sales. But if all you are competing on is price, soon you will be selling at cost (or even below). Instead, master the art of explaining to your customers why your higher price is actually a better value.

7. Know Your “Nut”

Know exactly how much money you need to stay in business — everything from rent, electricity and worker’s comp insurance to coffee, toner cartridges, paper and even what you pay your tax preparer. Divide that number by the number of days a year that you’re open for business, and that’s your “nut” — the minimum amount of money you need to bring in every day. Keep track of it on a daily basis: If you have a lot of days where you don’t make your nut, you need to rethink things.

8. Embrace New Technologies

New technologies such as cloud applications and mass data storage have lowered the cost of entry for small businesses. These technology solutions are inexpensive and allow small businesses to compete with large corporations on a scale never before seen. Small businesses need to take advantage of low-cost technology tools, leaving entrepreneurs with more money to invest in their ideas.

9. Treat Your Vendors Well

Treat your high-volume vendors at least as well as your best customers. They can discount your raw materials based on volume, or even just on the relationship and the hope of future volume.

10. Be Damn Good at What You Do

An employee at a large corporation can afford to be mediocre — you can’t. Every job you do for a client has to be the best job you can do; every widget you make has to be the best widget you can make. Do that, and word will spread. Self-employment is a meritocracy.

Source – Will Oremus, The Miami Herald

How Start-ups Should think about PR

If you start a company, you have about a 50% chance of being around in five years, which is the same survival rate as if you were just diagnosed with colon cancer.  Now let’s talk about PR.

When you start a business, you also start a timer that is counting down the days until your cash flow runs dry and your business fails.  Regardless of how well you are financed, who sits on your board or how good you are at keeping your costs under control, there is heightened significance to every moment, dollar or action when you are starting a business.

Every dollar or hour you commit has to have a discernible return.  The duration over when that return plays out may vary from company-to-company, but the return has to be there in a time that makes sense given your balance sheet and cash flow.

PR has traditionally been somewhat amorphous in terms of analyzing its return so it presents a challenge to start-ups.  Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know that it’s important to get people talking about or with you but it’s not always easy to justify the costs (mostly time-based) involved with generating and participating in the conversation.

The evolution of PR has accelerated over the past decade and some would say it’s become more impactful and measurable.  Mid and large-market companies can now take a more quantitative approach to understanding the impact of their activities but the metrics are generally still one step away from the metric that start-ups should care about, which is dollars.

As a start-up on the clock, PR should be tied on some level to dollars generated because if PR isn’t helping to generate sales, then it’s not worth doing.

Starting from this premise, here are some additional thoughts on the how start-ups should think about PR:

1. Even if you’re not spending dollars on PR, you’re spending time on it  and time is the most valuable commodity you have when starting a business.  Your time could be spent building an awesome product, selling it to customers or supporting customers after the transaction to make sure they come back for more and tell their friends about your business.  Every hour you spend on PR is an hour you lose on actions that you know have a discernible ROI.

2. Derive multi-faceted value from singular activities – If you are going to spend an hour on PR, then make sure you get some benefit out of it.  If you spend that hour digging up a journalist to pitch, constructing a pitch, sending the pitch, not hearing back and then summarily forgetting that the hour just happened, then you have just failed.  If you use that pitch as the basis for a story that you share on your blog, then you have derived some value from the effort.

Every day, you are doing things outside of PR that can be repurposed to support PR and vice versa.  Keep that in mind.

If you just spent an hour writing an e-mail to a customer, explaining your perspective on something, then you have just created a story for your blog, which brings us to our next point.

3. PR can be mediated or disintermediated – It used to be that PR meant relying on someone to tell your story on your behalf to their audience.  Not any more.  You can tell your story to your audience yourself these days.  In fact, when you’re getting started, disintermediated PR is often times better because A. You aren’t relying on anyone else to communicate on your behalf so you can be sure that your content gets out there into the public sphere, B. You can get feedback that will help you tweak your product and your marketing/sales mix and C. you can target people who will actually care about your business or product and this is important because…

4. You aren’t that special – As Palahniuk wrote in Fight Club, “You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all a part of the same compost pile.”  Most journalists don’t want to write about you because they know that it’s likely you won’t even be around in a couple of years and they have heard the same pitch ten times today already.

Journalists don’t want to hear you telling them why your business or product is unique and special.  In fact, I don’t really want to hear that either.  What both the journalists and I want to hear, is something interesting that I haven’t heard before.  Don’t write 300 words about why you’re awesome and send that to a journalist, write 300 words about the research you did to determine that “awesome” is actually “not awesome” (and how this sparked your interest in starting a new brand called “not awesome”) and why that research is relevant in the context of a story.  Now we’re having a conversation and the conversation is important because. . .

5. A hit isn’t the result of a pitch, it’s a manifestation of the relationship that you build with your network – When you’re engaging in mediated PR, don’t go looking for one-night stands, look for buddies.  I’ve heard from my friends that one-night stands can be quite exciting.  You meet someone out, flirt, hook-up then never see them again.  You really don’t want to treat journalists or bloggers like this.

Journalists or bloggers are as tuned-in to your market as anyone.  Building a great relationship with one can be incredibly beneficial for a lot of reasons.  They can be an incredible source of information, they can point you in directions you never considered and can even lean on you for future stories and this is valuable because…

6. Even if you get a hit, it may not be a hit – I’ve talked to many entrepreneurs and small business owners who have spent too much time pitching, who have finally received a hit.  The ensuing conversation often times goes like this:

Entrepreneur: “Hey, I finally got a hit in [Insert prestigious publication of your choice].”

Me: That’s awesome, did you get a lot of new customers?

Entrepreneur: I got a couple.

On a side note, I really think the value of hits is in how the hit becomes a promotional tool by reinforcing your credibility (so pimp the brand where you got the hit all over your site) and in the organic search value the link from the hit brings to your site.  This is important because even after you have gotten a hit, you want to think about whether the benefit justified the cost and if it didn’t, then

7. If the experiment fails then stop and try something different – The most successful entrepreneurs who do their own PR are good because they try a bunch of things, stop doing things that don’t return and focus on things that do.  It seems like a simple equation but there are complexities, mostly in the execution of the tactic, the length of time that the tactic is executed and in the framework through which return is analyzed.

In general, PR can be an extremely valuable exercise if it is performed with the right mindset.  This is just a list of observations I’ve made, based on my own experience as well as from watching others.  What do you think?

Source – New Influencer

How to Plan a Business Grand Opening, Part 1: Time and Place

A grand opening event is a great way to introduce your new company or location. It is also an excellent reason to throw a party. This is not any regular party, though. Planning will be crucial. A corporation likely has a corporate event planner, but a small business owner may be doing the planning themselves. You should give yourself around a month’s preparation time to plan your business grand opening.

Regardless of who is planning the event, the days leading up to your grand opening may be especially stressful. Chances are that no matter what you do, there will be unavoidable pitfalls. For this reason, I have created this how-to article based on research and my own experience in order to make the road to your business grand opening as smooth as possible.

I found it easiest to work in this order, but you may feel more comfortable planning your event in a different order. Just make sure you cover all your bases.

Where is the Business Grand Opening Event Taking Place?

Grand openings typically take place at the business’s store, restaurant, factory, etc. However, in some instances the business may opt to throw a business or brand launch party rather than a traditional grand opening. In such a scenario, you will need to choose a location for the event. Make sure to get started early, as the closer it gets to your grand opening date, the harder, and possibly more expensive, it will be to book a venue. Plus, you need to know the venue before you can send out invitations and you ideally want to send out your invitations 6-8 weeks prior to your grand opening.

When is the Business Grand Opening Event?

The key thing to consider when picking a date is the list of attendees. If you are a restaurant, do you want to target employees who work during the week or are you trying to attract families who go out to eat?

As a general rule, it is recommended that your grand opening not be on a weekend or holiday. You may needlessly lose attendees. Locals often go on vacation during these times and employees may elect to skip the event rather than come in on their time off.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to plan events. If the grand opening event is planned during the day, it is easier to take time off work in the middle of the week rather than on Mondays or Fridays which are usually the busiest days of the week.

Consider the weather. You may be planning your grand opening months in advance. Go on whether sites and look at weather trends for the date you are selecting. What will be the average temperature? What are the chances that it will rain?

Lastly, as always consider your business. Everything I have said deserves consideration, but in the end it is you who knows what you are doing and who you are trying to reach best. Maybe it is best that you throw your business grand opening event on a Friday or Saturday. If you are opening a camp, the best time to have your grand opening event would obviously be on a Saturday or Sunday, when kids don’t have to go to school.

What Time is the Business Grand Opening Event?

Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner? The time the event is being held will greatly affect the theme of your grand opening. For example, if the event is at night there may be lighting concerns, or it may be too cold to have it take place outdoors. If you hold the event at around noon, how hot is it going to get?

Planning your grand opening at night is risky, especially if you’re planning a formal event. You do not want people to have to go home to change in order to attend your event. Even people who actually plan on attending may go home with the intent to change, but get complacent once they are home.  To prevent this needless loss of attendees, plan your event so that people can attend straight from work. If your heart is set on throwing a fancy grand opening, go ahead and throw it. However, keep in mind that whenever you are asking people to go out of their way to come to your event, there must be something to entice them to do so.

Remember to give a time frame of how long you expect the event to last. Invitees might need to adjust their plans in order to schedule your business grand opening into their calendar. For this reason, it is also important that invitees know well in advance about your event so that they have scheduled your event into their calendar before anything else comes up.  As a general rule, you do not want to have your grand opening event take place any earlier than 8 am or later than 10 pm.

Source – UPrinting

5 Reasons to Create a Superior Customer Experience

Customer Experience is more than Customer Service

Some might say he was just giving good customer service, but it was more than that.

Good customer service would have been answering the phone, being polite, knowing the facts and getting the parcel delivered some time that day – that was the service that had been paid for.

Here are five reasons why you should create a superior customer experience for the customers of your small business.

1. Building customer relationships . . .

A superior customer experience is a critical part of building successful customer relationships.

Before people will buy from your small business they need to know, like and trust you.  If their first experience with your business is bad, you’ve made that process much harder.

One of the key points about providing a superior customer experience is consistency.  You never know how important a customer will be, how much business they could place with you in the future.

If you ensure every customer gets a great experience you’ll build great long-term customer relationships.

2. Gaining customer referrals . . .

Customers don’t refer businesses who give them a bad experience.

But if you receive a superior customer experience you are likely to tell others, leading to customer referrals.  These referrals are a great source of new leads and are very important for building a sales pipeline.

The process of nurturing a lead into a sale is easier with a referral because your existing customer has already built some trust by recommending you.

3. Saving you money . . .

Providing a superior customer experience will save your small business money in two ways.

Firstly receiving customer referrals means that you can save money by cutting back on other forms of advertising to gain leads.

Secondly you’ll ensure you don’t lose sales due to customers telling others about their bad experience.

4. Building a positive brand . . .

Social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook have made it much easier for people to communicate their feelings about your business.  They might feel uncomfortable telling you that they were unhappy with their experience, but that might not stop them telling their three hundred friends on Facebook or their two hundred followers on Twitter.

Providing a consistently superior experience for your customers will ensure that you build a strong, positive brand and a great reputation.

5. Building customer loyalty . . .

If you offer a superior customer experience you’ll stop your competitors stealing your customers.

You’ll develop a loyalty with your existing customers so they return to you when they need your products and services in the future.

The Bottom Line

If you want your customers to recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues you need to offer a superior customer experience.

Source-Fresh Eyes Consultancy

Take Advantage of Every Business Opportunity – Your Local Chamber of Commerce

The Chamber of Commerce is an organization where its main function is to promote economic prosperity through the promotion and success of its members (small businesses and entrepreneurs). In fact many studies reveal that membership in a Chamber of Commerce can significantly boost your business’s image and reputation among consumers and businesses alike. Your local chamber is comprised of business enterprises, civic organizations, education institutions and entrepreneurs. While different chapters offer different benefits to its members, here are some of the benefits that your local Chamber of Commerce might offer and why you should look into your local Chamber.

Marketing Opportunities:

• Free listing in their online directory where you can list your website’s URL. Some Chamber of Commerce websites receives over 5,000 hits per day.
• Free business listing in their Membership Directory; distributed to THOUSANDS of members and other applicable parties.
• The Chamber of Commerce receives thousands of calls each month from people looking for services; here you are able to get business referrals just for being a member.
• Free weekly e-newsletter that reaches THOUSANDS of subscribers. Here you can promote your events, specials and business news free of charge. May purchase prime ad spots for an additional fee.
• Free monthly print newsletter that has THOUSANDS subscribers. Here you can promote your products, services and events to the rest of the business community. May purchase prime ad spots for an additional fee.

Building Your Business:

• Attend free networking and how to events, such as their speed networking sessions. They also have an annual Chamber of Commerce meeting with many attendees and opportunity to provide priceless recognition in the business community.

Business Resources and Tools:

• Discounts on office supplies, copies and advertising.
• Small Business Resources. Tons of resources to help you with your small business questions, from financial funding, labor laws, workforce development and management assistance.
• Lastly, the fees for joining your local Chamber of Commerce are tax deductible.

To locate a Chamber of Commerce, visit ChamberFind.

Source – TheWorkAtHomeWoman